mi 










■ <?• " .0 -^ 



.^' 



iMSiis^ %^^ :]^f'^^ 






, 'WW' /"^ -.tew; ^^- 



O , t " 






-^0^ 



<^' 




V 









^--^K 



^, 






•o f- 
.0 w 



,^^^^g^.%^ ,^ 



%ui7^:. 






" 4 O ■- r. 




° " " ^ 'O 



s.\ 



,-^ 









^?^ Digitized by The Internet Archive ^V 



^^^^. 



^. 



in 2011 with funding from ° ^f ° ., "^ 



^' 



^: 



^ A. - 









r^^s^ ; The Library of Congress\^s^ 



'"^. 
•^ 



G' 












s- 



'v* 









'^, 






.^^ 



V 



^^^^^^■^ ^' ^'■^^^:\'%^J' /^M'^ %.A^ :^\^ 










^iWM\ 



v^- y^ ^ '^'ip^ 

'.xr^^v..-. o ^5' 












£^^„ /*:»&; ^.-J^ ^kSi!*;'.^.,^ 



-> r • 



^^^ 



G^ 
■A 

■\ V o « o 












,V 






<. 



"''■^ .^' 



^ ^ http://www.archive.org/details/onstudiesingenerOOwhit 



G^ 






"'i' 

o. 



.^^ 



'V 



^^ ' ' ' A^s& %„ .s**' /li&'v ^%,A-' " .'isi/A". *- 



A o^ , ^^ 



^"-n^. 



A c> 






.0^ 




-^--0^ 



^ 



^' 




.-J> 



<;• 



%b, "^^,.5^ .^ 



A 



-1^ 



G^ 




o « S • .1 V 



^^-^^^ 












^. 




'.•^ 



^-' 



-^ ->^/ /■% '-^W.' o' "^^ ^W-' ^'°^ 






0^ 



'^ 






■S^/^, 










•^-s. A^ ■ •'A%i,%'^ \ A 




-■i-' 



\P 



A 



..4 o^ 



??' 





^ 



>* ^V 









V\^ 



<^. 



.G' 





^'^^ 



" " ^"^ , ^ ^" "-7^ " " ' r\ 




,-0' 



.^ 



•io. 






STUDIES 



GENERAL HISTORY 



AND THE 



HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION 



PAPERS 



HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 

Vol. I. No. 2 



ON 

STUDIES 

IN 

GENERAL HISTORY 

AND THE 

HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION 



A PAPER READ BEFORE THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION AT ITS 
FIRST PUBLIC MEETING, SARATOGA, SEPTEMBER g, 18S4 



By ANDREW D. WHITE 

President of the Association 



NEW YORK & LONDOISr 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
1885 

Urku O* 



<<r|iu 



/1> 






COPYRIGHT BY 

AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 

iS8s 



Press of 

G. P. Putnam's Sons 

New York 



ON STUDIES IN GENERAL HISTORY AND THE 
HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION. 

At the founding of an association for the advancement of 
historical studies in the United States, it is natural that we 
look over the field to see in what directions and through 
what channels the activity of American historical scholars 
can be best directed. 

In every branch of learning there are some fields into 
which all scholars in all nations may enter upon equal terms 
and with equal chances of success ; but there are also special 
fields in which each national group of scholars works at an 
advantage, and in which scholars in other nations must, as 
a rule, give the maximum of labor to the minimum of re- 
sult ; and this is by no means least true in the study of 
history. 

It is evident, for example, that the scholars of each nation 
have special advantages as regards investigation into the 
history of their own country : having closer access to its 
documents and finer appreciation of its modes of thought, 
they bring themselves more easily into the historical current 
flowing through their nation than a scholar from outside 
generally can. There are, indeed, exceptions to this rule. 
Such men as Ranke, Buckle, von Sybel, Sir James Stephen, 
Parkman, Baird, and Charles Kendall Adams, writing upon 
the history of France ; Guizot, Pauli, and Gneist, upon the 
general and constitutional history of England ; Motley, upon 
the history of Holland ; Prescott, Ticknor, and Dunham, 
upon the history of Spain ; Robertson, Bryce, Carlyle, and 
Herbert Tuttle, upon the history of Germany ; Haxthausen 
[49] 5 



6 Studies in General History and the [50 

and Wallace, upon the history 04 Russia ; De Tocqueville, 
Laboulaye, and von Hoist, upon the history of the United 
States, show that the general rule has many and striking 
exceptions, so many exceptions, indeed, as to indicate the 
existence of a subordinate rule which, simply stated, is that 
an individual standing outside of the country may be so dis- 
engaged and disentangled as to take a clearer view of ques- 
tions in which religious or patriotic prejudices are involved 
than most scholars within the country are likely to do. 
Still, the large rule is unquestionably that the main work in 
the development of historical knowledge concerning any 
country must be done by the scholars of that country. 

But besides these special fields there are general fields. 
These have to do with the evolution of man and society in 
human events through large reaches of time and space, — 
with a philosophical synthesis of human affairs, or what 
may be called the " summing up " of history. 

These fields are open to thoughtful men of all countries 
alike; they can be studied with fairly equal chances of suc- 
cess by men in all parts of the world where human thought 
is not under some curb, and where the love of truth as truth 
and faith in truth as truth predominate over allegiance to 
any system, governmental, ecclesiastical, philosophical, or 
scientific. 

While acknowledging the great value of special investiga- 
tions and contributions to historical knowledge in individual 
nations, it is not too much to say that the highest efTort and 
the noblest result toward which these special historical in- 
vestigations lead is the philosophical synthesis of all special 
results in a large, truth-loving, justice-loving spirit. 

Bearing on this point. Buckle, in a passage well worthy 
of meditation, has placed observation at the foot of the lad- 
der, discovery next above it, and pJiilosopJtical method at the 
summit. He has shown that without a true philosophical 
synthesis special investigations and discoveries often lead 
us far from any valuable fruits, and that such special inves- 
tigations may be worse than no investigations at all.' 

^ See " History of Civilization in England," English edition, vol. II., p. 387. 



5 1] History of Civilization. 7 

To these general considerations as to fields may be added 
something as to motives of study. The scholar may 
indeed find his motive for any special study in curiosity, 
or pride, or the desire to strengthen himself in his profes- 
sion, or to exalt the fame of his neighborhood or country. 
Out of such motives indeed good things may grow, and 
there may come to these growths a beautiful bloom and 
fruitage ; but even the best of these must be special and 
partial. The great, deep ground out of which large histori- 
cal studies may grow is the ethical ground, — the simple 
ethical necessity for the perfecting, first, of man as man, 
and, secondly, of man as a member of society ; or, in other 
words, the necessity for the development of humanity on 
the one hand and society on the other. Hence it would 
appear that, precious as special investigations may be, 
most precious of all is that synthesis made by enlightened 
men looking over large fields, in the light of the best 
results of special historical research, to show us through 
what cycles of birth, growth, and decay various nations 
have passed; what laws of development may be fairly 
considered as ascertained, and under these what laws of 
religious, moral, intellectual, social, and political health or 
disease ; what developments have been good, aiding in the 
evolution of that which is best in man and in society ; 
what developments have been evil, tending to the retro- 
gression of man and society ; how various nations have 
stumbled and fallen into fearful errors, and by what pro- 
cesses they have been brought out of those errors ; how 
much the mass of men as a whole, acting upon each other 
in accordance with the general laws of development in 
animate nature, have tended to perfect man and society ; 
and how much certain individual minds, which have risen 
either as the result of thought in their time, or in spite of 
it — in defiance of any law which we can formulate — have 
contributed toward this evolution. Here as to results we 
have a verification of that pithy line of Publius Syrus, 
Discipulus est prioris posterior dies. 

This study of history, either as a whole or in large 



8 Studies m General History and the [52 

parts, is of vast value both as supplying the method and 
the test of special studies on the one hand, and of meeting 
the highest necessities of man on the other. We may 
indeed consider it as the trunk of which special histories 
and biographies are the living branches, giving to them and 
receiving from them growth and symmetry, drawing life 
from them, sending life into them. 

That such a connection between general and special 
investigation, between critical analysis of phenomena on the 
one hand and synthesis of results on the other, is not a 
theory but a pregnant fact, can be easily seen by a glance 
over the historical work going on in our own time. 

Take first France. The large treatment in Bossuet's 
Universal History, in Voltaire's Essai siir les ATczurs, and in 
the essays of Condorcet and Turgot, was the cause and, to 
some extent, the result of a remarkable growth of special 
histories in the last century. The great philosophical 
treatise of Guizot upon the history of civilization in 
Europe, the monumental work of Professor Laurent, of 
Ghent, upon the history of humanity traced along the 
lines of international law, and the works of Daunou, Roux- 
Ferrand, Michelet, and Henri Martin, have been causes and 
results of a great new growth of special historical investi- 
gations in this century. There is no time here to dwell 
upon individuals, but I may at least mention the works of 
Thierry, Mignet, Quinet, and Lanfrey, as examples of 
precious special histories which would never have been 
written save in the light of these general philosophical his- 
tories. If it be said that Thiers is an exception to the rule, 
I answer that his career is but a proof of it, and that the 
reason why he has been the most pernicious special pleader 
among French historians and the greatest architect of ruin 
among modern French statesmen, may be found in his 
distinct denial of any philosophical basis of history what- 
ever.^ 

Take next England. We see such masterpieces of gen- 
eral historical work as those of Gibbon and Robertson in 

' See Thiers' " Consulat et TEmpire," vol. XII., Preface. 



53] History of Civilization. <^ 

the last century, and Grote, Buckle, Whewell, and Lecky in 
this, acting powerfully both as causes and results of special 
histories. 

Take our own country. The works of Bancroft and 
Hildreth, the History of International Law by Henry 
Wheaton, the fragmentary lectures of President Dew, of 
William and Mary College, the introductory chapters of 
Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella and Motley's Dutch 
Republic, the History of the Intellectual Development 
of Europe by Draper — warped though it is by his view of 
the analogy between national and individual development, — 
and such recent works as those of Lea, Charles Kendall 
Adams, McMaster, Coit Tyler, Lodge, Parkman, and others, 
with the work now going on at Cambridge, the State Uni- 
versities of Michigan and Wisconsin, Johns Hopkins and 
Cornell Universities, show this same law in full force. 

And if we go to fields more remote, we find in Italy the 
great philosophical generalizations of Vico working down 
through the writings of Sismondi, Colletta, Villari, Cantii, 
Bonghi, Settembrini, and a host of others. Even in Spain 
we find that Balmes, thoughtful as he is, having simply the 
thought and depth of a special pleader, stimulates men with 
the same defects in special fields. 

But greatest proof of all that these two growths of his- 
torical thought are vitally connected, is to be found in even 
the most rapid survey of the work going on in Germany. Of 
the vast number of special growths I have no time to pre- 
sent the slightest sketch ; their thoroughness and extent are 
exemplified in the Monument a Germanicz as carried on by 
Waitz, Wattenbach, and their compeers. But the work in 
the study of general world-history and the history of civil- 
ization has developed both as a cause and result of this 
special work. Of broad and philosophical treatises we have 
such world-histories, of different merits, as those of Leo, 
Schlosser, Weber, and Ranke ; and, covering parts of the 
great field but in the same general spirit, such works as 
those of Ranke, Mommsen, Ernst Curtius, Droysen, Giese- 
brecht, Gregorovius, and a multitude of others ; and in his- 



lO Studies in General History and the [54 

tories of civilization such as those of Wachsmuth, DuBois 
Reymond, Biedermann, Carriere, Henne-Am Rhyn, Kolb, 
Hellwald, Honeggcr, Grun, Lazarus, Prutz, and others, — 
a list extending through the whole gamut of capacity. I 
adduce these facts, and especially this luxuriance of growth 
in German general historical studies, simply to show that 
such general growths go with special historical study, and 
that, however much we do and ought to do in this country 
as to special investigation, an indication of healthful growth 
will be found in general and synthetical work even though 
some of it be inadequate. 

And here allow me to call your attention to the use of 
the term " investigation." There appears frequently an 
idea that the word can be justly applied only to search into 
minute material facts and documents ; but is it not just as 
true that investigation can be made into the relations and 
laws of facts ? So, too, regarding a phrase we constantly 
hear, *' the advancement of knowledge." But is knowledge 
advanced alone by the study of minute facts and occur- 
rences ? May it not also be advanced by a study of rela- 
tions and methods and of laws governing such facts and 
occurrences ? Investigation is as truly a means to the ad- 
vancement of knowledge in the hands of the philosophic 
historian dealing with general history, as in those of the 
most minute annalist dealing with some forgotten piece 
of diplomacy or strategy. Did it not require as much 
original investigation, and was not the field of knowledge 
as much increased, when Guizot gave us his profound 
and fruitful generalizations as to the laws governing and 
consequences flowing from national development in civiliza- 
tion, under the influence of one or many elements, as when 
Gachard discovered the facts regarding the cloister life of 
Charles V., or when Mr. Poole showed the connection of 
Manasseh Cutler with the Northwestern territorial ordi- 
nance ? The two — general and special investigation — must 
go together. So it was in Guizot's case ; so it should be in 
all cases. 

But let us now look somewhat more closely into this 



55] History of Civilization. ii 

matter of the investigation of historical facts, especially 
as to the ends sought and the qualities required. Doubt- 
less the end sought is exact truth, and the first quality 
required, veracity. But then comes the question : what 
truth, and, veracity on what lines? Take a case. Two 
men investigate the formation of one of our State consti- 
tutions. One knows little of the constitutional development 
of our other States, or of the nation, or of foreign coun- 
tries. He gives us a plain, dry statement of the facts which 
he sees, which, of course, are mainly surface facts. He is 
particular to give us the dates of sessions, the names of 
chairmen, the heads of committees, the makers and matter 
of speeches. The other, of equal veracity, knows much of 
the development of constitutional history in our own and 
other nations. He, too, gives us what he sees ; and there- 
fore he makes the fundamental facts shine through the sur- 
face annals. We have simply the difference here between 
the history of the birth of an American commonwealth, by 
a keen, rural lawyer — as keen, if you please, as Thiers — on 
the one hand, and on the other by a Story, a Cooley, or a 
Stubbs. Take another case. Two men investigate the his- 
tory of popular government in one of our great cities — New 
York, perhaps. One is a careful, painstaking annalist, and 
nothing more. He masters the surface facts so far as they 
are given by chronicles of various sorts, from Stuyvesant 
and Governor Dongan's charter to the overthrow of 
Tweed and to the supremacy of Kelly. The other is just 
as careful and truthful, but something more. He has stud- 
ied and meditated upon other cities ; he has perhaps done 
what Ruskin insists that every true scholar ought to do — 
has studied the history of the five great cities of the world; 
has meditated upon the growth of the commercial spirit in 
the Italian city republics, in the Hanseatic League, and in 
the great English seaports ; upon the growth of city fac- 
tions from the days of Claudius and Milo in Rome, through 
the Blues and Greens in Constantinople, the Bianchi and 
Neri in Florence, the Remonstrants and Counter-Remon- 
strants in the cities of Holland, and the New York " Halls "; 



12 Studies ill General History and the [56 

upon outbursts of civic public spirit like those which pro- 
duced the Parthenon at Athens, the Duomo at Florence, 
and the town-halls of the Netherlands j upon the good and 
evil tendencies of accumulated civic wealth from Crassus, 
Jacques Cceur, and the Medici, to Peabody, and Cooper, 
and Vanderbilt; upon the tendencies of a civic proletary 
class as typified in such examples as the Marian prescrip- 
tions in Rome, the dealings of the mobs in medieval Laon 
and Liege with their bishops, the Terror and Commune of 
Paris, the Know-Nothing riots of Philadelphia and the Draft 
riots of New York. Who does not see that the latter 
scholar will reveal masses of important facts and relations 
which the other can never find ? 

Again, two men set out to investigate the growth of some 
phase of belief. Both are veracious, but one is simply 
minute, painstaking, limited by sectarian trammels, with 
little light from outside history; the other has made broad 
studies in comparative philology and religion. Which is 
likely to give us something that, even considered purely as 
an investigation, is of real value? 

But it is not necessary to suppose cases. Every reader 
of history can recall real cases of " investigation " " ex- 
tending the boundaries of knowledge," showing the vast 
difference between the annalist and the historian. Take 
one of the most recent. Professor Ihne, in his admirable 
Plistory of Rome, has made a new investigation of the 
story of Publius yEbutius and the panic persecution of the 
Bacchanalian fanatics. Who that reads his account does 
not see that the most important element in his investiga- 
tion comes from his general knowledge, and that he throws 
a powerful light into the depths of the story from his knowl-^ 
edge of the inmost spirit of the panic persecutions of the 
early Christians, of the Jews in the Middle Ages, and of the 
Roman Catholics in England under Charles 11.?^ 

And now allow me to call attention to some subordinate 
indications as to method, given by general history to 
special history. Greatly as I admire the main drift of Mr. 

' See lime's " History of Rome," chap. XIII. 



57] History of Civilization. 13 

Herbert Spencer's argument upon historical studies in his 
treatise on Education, some of his statements seem to me 
to require hmitation. He seems at times to confuse the 
study of history with the study of statistics, and thus to 
demand scientific proof when the nature of the material can 
only give moral proof/ The analogy between the study of 
history and of travel has justly struck many minds, and 
throws some side light upon Mr. Spencer's confusion. Let 
us observe this analogy in making a case. Two young 
Americans go to England for a year. One devotes himself, 
in strict accordance with Mr. Spencer's theory, to " descrip- 
tive sociology," which, under the rules laid down by Mr. 
Spencer, results in the statistical tabulation of a vast multi- 
tude of facts; the other occupies himself in getting at the 
thought of the time, dominant or militant, by reading the 
best books, by talking with the best men in every field, by 
noting ends and methods in work of all sorts, by study- 
ing, comparatively, various ways of solving political and 
social problems, by observing society in all its branches, 
even by listening to the current chatter and prattle, in the 
various social strata. Both may come back useful men ; but 
I think that none of us will deny that, as a man, the second 
— the historian — will be far better developed, and as a 
thinker, writer, or man of affairs far better equipped than 
the first — the statistician. Mr. Spencer has much to say 
regarding worthless sources and worthless facts. The truth 
is, a fact which appears very petty may be of vast value if 
it be pregnant, and a fact which appears very important is 
-worthless if it be barren. Louis XIV. receiving Cond6 on 
the great staircase of Versailles was an immense fact at the 
time ; to us, in the light of general history, it is worth little 
or nothing. Louis XVL calling for bread and cheese when 
arrested at Varennes, and declaring it the best bread and 
cheese he ever ate, furnishes a fact apparently worthless, 
but really of significance, for it reveals that easy-going help- 
lessness which was so important a factor in the wreck of the 
old French monarchy, — indeed, that very spirit of which 

' See Herbert Spencer on " Education," chap. I. 



14 Studies in General History and the [58 

Thomas Jefferson so amusingly generalized the causes and 
results in his letter to Governor Langdon. 

The fact that Rufus Choate filled this republic with his. 
mellifluous eloquence as a special pleader and was sent to the 
Senate of the United States, great as it then appeared, 
is now, as tested by the laws of general history, of no value. 
On the other hand, the fact that William Lloyd Garrison 
was editing a petty paper in Boston, unworthy of notice as 
it seemed then, is now found to be one of the great facts in 
American history- — indeed, a m.ost instructive fact in general 
history. 

This test applied by general history to special throws 
into its true light much of the cant now current regarding 
the worthlessness of information as to battles, sieges, and 
treaties, and the supreme worth of facts regarding the 
popular life. 

Mr. Spencer speaks contemptuously of historical atten- 
tion to battles ; yet battles may be important, and a little 
battle may be of vast value, and a great battle of none. 
The little battle of Saratoga is of great importance as a turn- 
ing point in the history of mankind ; the great battle of 
Austerlitz is of comparatively little importance, because it 
shows merely the result of a clash between two temporary 
developments in European politics. Mr. Spencer makes 
little of the reading of memoirs ; yet the little memoir of 
the Baroness Riedesel throws a flood of light upon the 
spirit in which this little battle of Saratoga was fought and 
in which this American colonial empire was lost by British 
mercenaries and won by American yoemanry ; indeed, it 
throws a light into the depths of philosophic history, for it 
shows the force of a love of freedom against the service of 
despotism. 

Mr. Spencer tells us that " familiarity with court intrigues,, 
plots, usurpations, and the like, and with all the personalities 
accompanying them, aids very little in elucidating the causes 
of national progress." This is in the main just, yet some- 
what too sweeping. Few subjects in modern history are 
more fruitful in valuable thought than the rise, glory, and 



59] History of Civilization. 15; 

decline of the absolute monarchy in France from Richelieu 
to Necker. Every historical scholar, no matter whether he 
agree with Buckle's theory or not, must acknowledge his 
masterly use of this subject in conveying some of the most 
important moral and political lessons to our present world. 
But how much less would have been Buckle's knowledge of 
the inner workings of that time had there not been open to 
him and to us the memoirs and diaries of St. Simon, 
Dangeau, Barbier, and the like. It is very doubtful whether 
the most elaborate collection of statistics would compensate 
for their loss. 

Mr. Spencer also pours contempt, and with much justice, 
over details of battles. And yet, while sympathizing largely 
with his statement in this respect, a careful historian must 
confess that there are details of battles which the thoughtful, 
student may well keep in mind. For example, when at the 
beginning of our recent civil war our Northern troops 
yielded at Bull Run and elsewhere to the first onset of the 
enemy, it was of some value to remember, in estimating 
the significance of such a yielding, that in the first battles of 
the French Revolution with Europe the troops afterward 
so successful broke more than once in this same manner. 
There are those of us who can remember how precious a 
knowledge of. this little historical fact was to us then^ 
and one, to my personal knowledge, used it before large 
audiences to keep up the courage of his fellow-citizens 
in that time of peril. 

Mr. Spencer asks : "Suppose that you diligently read ac- 
counts of all the battles that history mentions, how much 
more judicious would your vote be at the next election?" 
Thinking Americans of the age which most of us have 
reached bear an answer to this question stamped vividly in 
our memories. In the fearful crisis of our Civil War there 
were certain histories, of which battles formed a large part, 
that were precious. I remember at that time when at one of 
our greatest universities bodies of students came to my 
lecture-room asking : " What shall we read ? " my answer 
was: "Read the history of Rome just after the battle. 



1 6 Studies in General History mid the [60 

of Cannae ; read Motley's history of the Dutch Republic, 
and especially of the siege of Leyden ; read Macaulay's 
account of the siege of Londonderry ; read Provost Stille's 
pamphlet, ' How a Great People Carried on a Long War.' " 
All of us know that at many elections, perhaps at most 
of them, the question is not one of knowledge but of con- 
duct ; that is, not " What ought I to do ? " but " Have I the 
courage to do what I ought?" Sometimes historical facts 
which cannot be shaped into sociological tables aid us 
to answer either or both of these questions. The fact above 
referred to — that another leading nation, though its troops 
broke up in panic two or three times at first, carried a vast 
war to ultimate victory — was used at the beginning of our 
Civil War for the v&xy purpose of enlightening citizens as to 
their duty in " voting at the next election," — used to show 
them that they should not vote for candidates who repre- 
sented public discouragement and the tendency to make 
a compromise involving either disunion or the retention of 
slavery, forever, in the Constitution of the United States. 

So, too, I recall another historical fact which was used 
with effect at that time to keep up the courage of our people 
as to voting men and means for the war, and voting for 
candidates determined to resist disunion and the perpetua- 
tion of slavery. It was a fact which would probably never 
occur to any one as fitting into a sociological table, and yet 
it was to the American people an important fact. It was 
simply that at the beginning of the great English Civil 
War, in the middle of the seventeenth century, the first race 
of generals on the popular side — men like Manchester and 
Essex — failed because they could not thoroughly appreciate 
the questions at issue, and that success came only when 
men of sterner purpose were put in command. This his- 
torical fact, both in its development and results, was per- 
fectly paralleled in our own history. 

So, too, as to treaties. The treaty of Paris after the 
Crimean war has but a temporary interest ; the treaty of 
Westphalia has been active in the development of Europe, 
political, intellectual, and moral, down to this hour. 



6i] History of Civilisatio7i. 17 

So, too, as to facts apparently dried up and withered. A 
pamphlet by a forgotten sophist like Royer, and a speech 
by a contemptible demagogue like Gouy, at the beginning 
of the French Revolution, giving reasons for unlimited 
issues of paper-money then, are facts which would appear in 
no table of descriptive sociology ; and yet, when this repub- 
lic had recently to deal with the most momentous question 
since the Civil War, — the question of wild finance and cur- 
rency inflation, — the arguments in Royer's pamphlet and 
Gouy's speech, and others like them, which were once used 
to plunge France into the abyss of bankruptcy and ruin by 
unlimited issues of paper-money, were exhibited in our own 
country with decided effect, before committees at Washing- 
ton, before meetings of business men in New York, and in 
campaign pamphlets. They were certainly facts of vast 
importance with reference to " a vote at the next election," 
— a vote which was to decide whether this republic should 
be, by similar arguments and policy, plunged into misery 
and disgrace. 

So, too, as to facts regarding individual action : Aristotle 
in the apothecary shop, Plato in the grove, Erigena and 
Thomas Aquinas in the schools, Copernicus in his cell, New- 
ton in the orchard. Cardinal D'Ailly writing his Imago 
Mundi, Grotius writing his De Jure Belli ac Pads, Co- 
menius writing his little Orbis Picius, Volta in his uni- 
versity, Watt in his work-room, Descartes turning from 
natural science to philosophy, Paolo Sarpi advising the 
Venetian Republic how to meet an interdict, and writing 
his History of the Council of Trent, Thomasius publishing 
his treatise against witchcraft in the name of a student, 
Beccaria writing his little book on Crimes and Punish- 
ments, Adam Smith writing his Wealth of Nations, Kant 
writing his Critiques of the Pure and Practical Reason, 
Beaumarchais writing his Mariage de Figaro, Harriet 
Beecher Stowe writing her Uncle Tom's Cabin, Darwin 
on the Beagle, Cavour m.eeting Napoleon HI. at Plom- 
biferes, Bismarck meeting Frederick William IV. at Venice, 
Lincoln taking the stump in Illinois, — what facts are these I 



1 8 Studies in Ge^ieral History and the [62 

The simple truth is that there are facts and facts. In the 
beginning of this century, Metternich prompting the policy 
of Europe was supposed to be great ; Stein in his bureau 
was thought of little account. In our own time, Napoleon 
III. on the throne was apparently a great fact; but how 
much greater a fact was Pasteur in his laboratory! In England 
foolish Lord John Russell, reading homilies to the cabinets 
of Europe and nearly blundering into a great war with the 
United States, was called a statesman and seemed a control- 
ling personage ; but how small his real influence on England 
or the world at large compared with that of the rather for- 
lorn Prince Consort, who, despite his birth and environment, 
and the limitations imposed by a sneering court and jealous 
people, labored so successfully for the development of art 
and science throughout the world, and used his influence 
against the war which the folly of Lord John Russell did so 
much to bring on. 

The simple rule and test which general history and the 
history of civilization give to special investigation is that if 
close knowledge of a battle, or an intrigue, or a man is im- 
portant to our knowledge of the great lines of historical 
evolution, then these facts are important ; if not, they are 
not important. 

To the statement, then, that history has occupied itself 
too much with kings and courts and conquerors, and that 
it should " occupy itself with the people," a true historical 
synthesis gives answer that history must occupy itself with 
men and events which signify something. The men may 
be saints or miscreants, popes or monks, kings or peasants, 
conquerors or conspirators, builders of cathedrals or weavers 
of verse, railway kings or day laborers, publicists or satirists, 
philanthropists or demagogues, statesmen or mob orators, 
philosophers or phrase mongers. The event may be a poem 
or a constitution, a battle or a debate, a treaty or a drama, a 
picture or a railway, a voyage or a book, a law or an inven- 
tion, the rise of a nation or the fall of a clique. 

Meeting our ethical necessity for historical knowledge 
with statistics and tabulated sociology entirely or mainly, is 



63] History of Civilization. 19 

like meeting our want of food by the perpetual administra- 
tion of concentrated essence of beef. 

Again, is it possible to reduce necessary historical knowl- 
edge to such concentrated and tabulated form ? There are 
statistics and statistics ; some increase our perception of 
truth, some decrease it. As an example of both these 
facts, take a statement made in Montesquieu's- Greatness 
and Decline of the Romans, with Mr. Baker's excellent 
notes.' Montesquieu shows statistically and very effectively 
that in the early days of Rome the ratio of soldiers to popu- 
lation was as one to eight, whereas in Europe in Montes- 
quieu's time it was about one to a hundred ; and that this 
latter is the highest rate which can safely be maintained in 
a modern state. Mr. Baker corroborates this in a very 
striking manner, by showing that the number of persons 
serving in the armies and navies of the great modern Euro- 
pean states remains about one to one hundred. Now, so 
far, these statistics increase our perception of truth. They 
show simply but conclusively how much more strongly the 
warlike feeling was cherished in Rome, when, instead of one 
soldier or sailor to a hundred, as in the modern States, 
there was one to eight. 

But, on the other hand, take another statistical statement, 
which is, that under the Roman Empire, at the time of its 
greatest expansion, there was only one soldier and sailor to 
266 of the population, a ratio but little more than one third 
as great as that in the seven great military states of Europe 
to-day." This statistical statement, apart from other knowl- 
edge, would inevitably lead to the conclusion that the Ro- 
man Empire had ceased to wage war ; that, as compared to 
the great modern states of Europe, it thought little of self- 
defence, and needed to think little of it ; whereas the fact 
is that Rome at that very time was perpetually at war, that 
war was its greatest concern, — in fact, that its statesmen 
thought of little else on a large scale besides war. 

' See Montesquieu's " Grandeur and Decadence of the Romans," chaps. III. 
and XV., with Baker's notes. 

^ See Montesquieu, as above, chap. XV. 



20 Studies in General History and the [64 

Again, there are material statistics and moral statistics, 
and to each must be assigned a proper place. The cor- 
ruption and decline of Rome is one o-f the most important 
and suggestive things in human annals. This corruption 
and decline is as real as the existence of Rome itself. But 
how are we to understand it ? Material statistics as to the 
amount of territory conquered, wealth swept into Rome 
after the Carthaginian and Eastern wars, agricultural popu- 
lations pauperized, slaves substituted for yeomen, latifu7idia 
substituted for peasant farms, and the like, if we could 
obtain them, might be of use. But there are moral statis- 
tics of no less value. A poem of Lucretius, showing that 
thinking men had outlived the old faith, and that a great 
chasm had been opened between reason and religious insti- 
tutions ; Cicero's vacillating treatment of torture in pro- 
cedure ; a dialogue of Lucian, showing that the old religion 
had utterly broken down ; a fiing in Juvenal, at the hysteri- 
cal superstitions arising, especially among women ; a sen- 
tence in Tacitus approving the execution of four hundred 
slaves of Pedanius Secundus because one of them, unknown 
to the others, had murdered their master; the picture of a 
gladiatorial combat by Gerome, and Alma Tadema's picture 
of the praetorians dragging Claudius to the throne, — in each 
of these facts is included a whole column of moral statistics, 
which enable us to see far into the spirit of the time and 
the causes of that imperial decline, as columns of material 
statistics might not do. 

Take another field — the moral deterioration of France 
preparatory to the Revolution. This was a fact of vast 
moment to Europe. Doubtless statements could be tabu- 
lated to show this deterioration, but what statistics could 
throw so much light into it as the simple fact that the 
sainted Fenelon was succeeded in the archbishopric of Cam- 
bray by the infamous Cardinal Dubois ; that while the gov- 
ernment had disgraced Fenelon, it loaded Dubois with 
honors ; and that while the clergy had without a murmur 
allowed Fenelon to be crushed, they invited Dubois to pre- 
side over their National Assembly. 



65] History of Civilization. 2i 

Take a very different subject. The wild partisan madness 
of England toward France, which pushed on the war against 
the first French Republic, teaches a philosophical and practi- 
cal lesson to every modern nation. What statement can be 
tabulated so as to show it ? Yet a single caricature of Gill- 
ray, glorifying that infamous assassination by the Austrlans 
of Bonnier and Roberjot, the French envoys to the Congress 
of Rastadt, with the punning inscription exulting in that 
worst breach of international law in modern times, tells the 
whole story. 

Take a still more recent field. The material statistics as 
to the diminution in the height of soldiers in the French 
army during the later wars of Napoleon are of great value 
as showing not only the fearful state of exhaustion to 
which the empire was reduced, but the price which a nation 
has to pay for " glory." Look, now, at a moral statistic 
showing the same thing. One of the memoir writers' tells 
us that when Napoleon, after throwing away his army of 
over five hundred thousand men in the Moscow campaign, 
had hurried back to France and had entered the Tuileries 
almost alone, he rubbed his hands before the fire and sim- 
ply said : " Decidedly it is more comfortable here than in 
Moscow," with no further mention of the loss that France 
had sustained, and evidently with no sympathy for the mil- 
lions whom he had bereaved. Here is a moral statistic to the 
same effect as the material statistic just cited, and of equal 
value in showing the spirit in which Napoleonism wrought, 
and, indeed, from the point of view of general history, the 
spirit which military despotism necessarily engenders. 

Again, take the history now going on among ourselves. 
The future historian of the United States will, no doubt, 
give especial attention to the reunion of the Northern and 
Southern States as a homogeneous nation after the Civil 
War. This process is going on at this moment. What 
material facts that can be tabulated into a descriptive soci- 
ology throw any light upon it? I can see none. If you 
say the statistics of the votes in the Electoral Colleges cast 

' Bourrienne, I think. 



22 Studies in General History and the \^G 

at the last presidential election, my answer is that these 
will certainly mislead the, future historian if he is not very 
careful, for they would seem to show an absolute and com- 
plete break between North and South — a separation greater 
than before the war. But are there not moral statistics of 
far more real value in this case showing the very opposite 
of this? I think so. Take the simple fact that Judge 
Finch's poem, " The Blue and the Gray," is recited on 
Decoration Day, North and South ; take the fact that Mr, 
Atkinson delivered his address at the Georgia Exposition 
and found most respectful audience for his very plain state- 
ments of Southern shortcomings which before the war 
would very likely have cost him his life ; take the hospitable 
reception of Northern military companies in the South 
bearing the flag against which the Southern men risked 
their lives with a bravery very notable in human annals; — 
these are types of a multitude of facts which can be ar- 
ranged in no table of material statistics, but which are moral 
indications of the greatest value. 

And now as to certain limitations in the methods of in- 
vestigation imposed upon us by circumstances peculiar to 
ourselves. I remember several years ago hearing a gentle- 
man, temporarily eminent in politics (one of Carlyle's 
homines alors ceichres) in a speech before the authorities 
of an American university, declare that all history must be 
rewritten from an American point of view. This assertion,, 
at the time, seemed to savor of that vagueness and large- 
ness often noted in the utterances ot the American poli- 
tician upon his travels, which, in our vernacular, is happily 
named "tall talk"; but as the statement has recurred to 
my mind at various periods since, it has seem.ed to me that 
our political friend uttered more wisely than he knew. For 
is it not true that we, in this republic, called upon to help 
build up a new civilization, with a political and social his- 
tory developing before us of which the consequences for 
good or evil are to rank with those which have flowed from 
the life of Rome and the British Empire, — is it not true 
that, for us, the perspective of a vast deal of history is 



6/] History of Civilization. 23: 

changed ; that the history which, for the use of various 
European populations, has been written with minute atten- 
tion to details, must be written for us in a larger and more 
philosophical way? 

And is it not true that the history so rapidly developing 
here is throwing back a new light upon much history al- 
ready developed ? What legislator cannot see that the his- 
tory of our American municipalities throws light upon the 
republics of the Middle Ages, and derives light from them ? 
What statesman cannot understand far better the problem 
of the British government in Ireland in the light of our own 
problem in the city of New York? What classical scholar 
cannot better understand Cleon the leather-seller, as we 
laugh at the gyrations of a certain American politician now 
"starring it in the provinces"? What publicist cannot 
weigh more justly the immediate pre-revolutionary period 
in France as he notes a certain thin, loose humanitarianism 
of our day which is making our land the paradise of mur- 
derers? What historical student cannot more correctly 
estimate the value of a certain happy-go-lucky optimism 
which sees nothing possible but good in the future, when he 
recalls the complacent public opinion, voiced by the Italian 
historian just before 1789, that henceforth peace was to 
reign in Europe, since great wars had become an impossi- 
bility ? ' What student of social science cannot better esti- 
mate the most fearful anti-social evil among us by noting 
the sterility of marriage in the decline of Rome and in the 
eclipse of France ? 

In this sense I think that the assertion referred to as to 
the rewriting of history from the American point of view 
contains a great truth ; and it is this modified view of the 
evolution of human affairs, of the development of man as 
man, and of man in society, that opens a great field for 
American philosophic historians, whether they shall seek 
to round the whole circle of human experience, or simply 
to present some arc of it. 

The want of such work can be clearly seen on all sides. 

' See Cantu, " Histoire des Italians." 



24 Studies in General History and the [68' 

Not one of us reads the current discussions of public affairs 
in Congress, in the State Legislatures, or in the newspapers, 
who does not see that strong and keen as many of these 
are, a vast deal of valuable light is shut out by ignorance 
of turning-points in the history of human civilization thus 
far. Never was this want of broad historical views in 
leaders of American opinion more keenly felt than now. 
Think of the blindness to one of the greatest things 
which gives renown to nations, involved in the duty 
levied by Congress upon works of art. Think, too, of the 
blindness to one of the main agencies in the destruction 
of every great republic thus far, shown in the neglect to 
pass a constitutional amendment which shall free us from 
the d.dSi%tt oi coups d' itat 2X the counting of the electoral 
vote. Think of the cool disregard of the plainest teachings 
of general history involved in legislative carelessness or 
doctrinaire opposition to measures remedying illiteracy in 
our Southern States. Never was this want of broad histori- 
cal views more evident in our legislation than now. In the 
early history of this republic we constantly find that such 
men as John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, to say nothing 
of the lesser lights, drew very largely and effectively from 
their studies of human history. In the transition period 
such men as Calhoun, John Quincy Adams, Everett, and 
Webster drew a large part of their strength from this source. 
And in the great period through which we have recently 
passed the two statesman who wrought most powerfully to 
shape vague hopes into great events — William Henry 
Seward and Charles Sumner — were the two of all American 
statesmen in their time who drew inspiration and strength 
from a knowledge of the general history of mankind. 
Nothing but this could have kept up Seward's faith or 
Sumner's purpose. The absence of this sort of light among 
our public men at present arises doubtless from the necessi- 
ties of our material development since the Civil War, and 
the demand for exact arithmetical demonstration in finance 
rather than moral demonstration in broad questions of pub- 
lic policy ; but as we approach the normal state of things 



6g] Histoi'y of Civilization. 25 

more and more, the need of such general studies must grow 
stronger and stronger. 

As regards the work of our American universities and col- 
leges in the historical field, we must allow that it is wofully 
defective ; but there are signs, especially among those in- 
stitutions which are developing out of the mass of colleges 
into universities, of a better time coming. They must in- 
deed yield to the current sweeping through the age. This is 
an epoch of historical studies. It is a matter of fact, simple 
and easily verified, that whereas in the last century state 
problems and world problems were as a rule solved by phi- 
losophy, and even historians such as Voltaire and Gibbon 
and Robertson were rather considered as philosophers than 
as historians, in this century such problems are studied 
most frequently in the light of history. 

Still another encouraging fact is that advanced studies of 
every sort are more and more thrown into the historic form ; 
the growth of the historical school in political economy is 
but one of many examples of this. More and more it is felt 
that "the proper study of mankind is man"; more and 
more clear becomes the idea enforced by Draper, that the 
greatest problems of humanity must be approached not so 
much by the study of the individual man as by the study of 
man in general and historically. 

To this tendency the great universities of the old world 
have already conformed, and to this the institutions for ad- 
vanced instruction in our own country must conform before 
they can take any proper rank in the higher education and 
be worthy to be called even the beginnings of universities. 

It is largely in these institutions of learning that this 
work of historical study which I especially advocate — this 
union of close scientific analysis with a large philosophic 
synthesis — must begin. Unquestionably the number of 
professors devoted to historical investigation in the Ger- 
man universities is the great cause of the fact that Germany 
has surpassed other modern nations not only in special 
researches, but in general historical investigations. Impor- 
tant researches have indeed been made outside her univer- 



.26 Studies in General History and the [70 

sities, but the great majority of them have certainly been 
made by university men ; and this indicates the lines on 
which historical studies are to be best developed in our 
own country. Every professor of history in a university 
should endeavor to present some special field with thorough- 
ness ; to extend, deepen, or quicken special knowledge in 
that field ; to lead his students to investigations in it. 
Doubtless of all such fields that which, as a rule, will yield 
the most fruit to special and original investigation by 
American students will be found in English and American 
political, social, and constitutional history. But while the 
professor in an American university makes special studies, 
he ought to be laboring toward something like a conspectus 
of human history, — if not of all human history, at least of 
some great part of it. So shall he prevent his generaliza- 
tions from becoming vague, and his investigations from 
becoming trivial. 

During a recent residence in Germany I more than once 
found the ablest investigators, men of world-wide rank, la- 
menting the relative v/ant of this large philosophical v/ork. 
Said the Rector of one of the foremost universities to me : 
*' It saddens me to see so many of my best young men con- 
fined entirely to mere specialties and niceties. The result 
of all this is an excessive specialization of study which, if 
carried much further, will render a university impossible." 

To lead American students in our universities and col- 
leges prematurely and mainly into special and original in- 
vestigations is simply to fasten upon them the character of 
petty annalists. With such special work should go, pa7'i 
J>assUj thoughtful study of great connected events. 

Among many examples proving this necessity, in the uni- 
versity professor, of large general studies in connection with 
the best special work, we have some especially striking in 
our own time. Who does not see that Professor Freeman's 
admirable researches into mediaeval history derive perhaps 
the greater part of their cogency from the very wide range 
of his studies in time and space ? Who does not feel that 
even when he is investigating the minutest point in what 



7i] History of Civilization. 2/ 

Milton compared to the "wars of kites and crows," the 
habit of mind engendered by this general study adds vastly 
to the value of his special study, enabling him to see what 
lies under the mere surface history here and to strike the 
turning-point there? So, too, with Professor Goldwin 
Smith. Who of us does not feel during his discussion of 
the simplest point, even of local Canadian history, that we 
are in the grasp of a man v/ho brings to the subject a broad 
knowledge which enables him to flood the pettiest local 
event v/ith light as the simple annalist and mere special in- 
vestigator could never do ? Who that has had the pleasure 
of hearing such professors as Ernst Curtius at Berlin, or 
Oncken at Giessen, has not seen that the secret of strength 
in the German professor is not, as commonly supposed, 
merely in his minute investigation, but very largely in his 
illumination of special research by broad general study? 
Such are special studies when combined with general 
studies. But who has not seen them when not thus com- 
bined ? 

So have I known a local historian devote himself to ab- 
struse study of such questions in the history of a country 
town as whether the fire-engine house was originally in the 
neighborhood of the village school or of the town pump, 
and whether a petty ofiicial recently departed was at an 
early period of his life in sympathy with the Presbyterians 
or Methodists. 

It is to be hoped then that at the future meetings of an 
Association such as we now contemplate papers may be fre- 
quently presented giving the results not only of good 
special work in history and biography, work requiring keen 
critical analysis, but of good work in the larger field re- 
quiring a philosophical synthesis. There ought certainly to 
be a section or sections in American history, general and 
local, and perhaps in other special fields ; but there ought 
to be also a section or sections devoted to general history, 
the history of civilization, and the philosophy of history. 

Of course such a section will have its dangers. Just as in 
the section devoted to special history there will be danger 



28 Studies ifi General History. [72. 

of pettiness and triviality, so in that devoted to general his- 
tory there will be danger of looseness and vagueness — 
danger of attempts to approxinnate Hegel's shadowy re- 
sults. But these difficulties in both fields the Association 
must meet as they arise. Certainly a confederation like this 
— of historical scholars from all parts of the country, stimu- 
lating each other to new activity — ought to elicit most val- 
uable work in both fields, and to contribute powerfully ta 
the healthful development on the one hand of man as man, 
and on the other to the opening up of a better political and 
social future for the nation at large. 

None can feel this more strongly than the little band of 
historical scholars who, scattered through various parts of 
the country, far from great libraries and separate from each 
other, have labored during the last quarter of a century to 
keep alive in this country the fiame of philosophical investi- 
gation of history as a means for the greater enlightenment 
of their country and the better development of mankind. 



^18 











i,- 









.'^' 



<"^ 






4." 




<?>. 



.^ 



HO, 











^, 




.^ 



•^^ 



c, ^ 




.-^' 



\a9" 




^. 



^>-. ,'V 








-o V" 



5.0 -t: 



<^. 




xO--^ 



^^ 






d,*' r " c <f> 




■s^. 



.v^.. 



-^. 




^'^ r O" '= ^ "'^ 








■1^ 



^-^ 



4q. 



•^„ 



^0^ 



-"^ 



'^^ 



^^& 






V^ 







V 







^^ 



"'o-l^^ .G^ 




-1^ 



-^^. r^i 




'o y 



.-V 



^, 



^. 
















o V 



■^^ 



-^ 



V 



^' 






,G o 'o . . « ,A. 




o o * 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: ;: . :..? 




JOvd 



■^^ 



0^ PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1- 111 Thomson Park Drive 

Cranberry' Township. PA 1 6066 
(724) 779-2111 



ifHJSSr 



c -^ "vP: 




V . ^ V.L'-^ <^> 






^'^ . 







.-^ 




.0' 




«'^ minis'; .s'V •^^^^^*^^- <^ 






.40. 



,^ 




^ -.'^^^■/ ^% ^-^^m; ^\. ^^^^ ^'% ^Mi^^ ^^- 





o 



^^' ^„ <-^' 



.-^ 



Co i^ 






^. 




,,^ 





.-^q. 



> 






V . ^' 








^^^^ 



,aO' 








,-?^ 



^^ 



"o v^ :^i 



^. 



.^ 






1^^^^ 

a"^ '^^ 
<?,, ^ 




'.^' 



^^-V 




•^ 



0^ ,'^'-"-' o. 



-K^^ ■■■' mr^ 








."V 



<P-. 









.0' 











""'^^ .<^ .„. <^. ^-^ A^^ 








'n." 






I-. -^^0^ 



MAR 

i^M^ N. MANCHESTER, 
INDIANA 






-^ 






> 












LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

'titrim "' I' ^'1' ''I ''IIP 



009 476 444 



